Unique Storage

When shopping, I love finding something that you don't even know you need.  This happened to me the other day while looking for a wine glass rack at The Container Store. I saw this on an end cap:

My first thought: "OMG - I used to have one of those that all my stuffed animals hung on.  I also had a stuffed animal hammock."  My second thought: "I wonder what happened to all those stuffed animals?"  Finally, my third thought: "OMG - I can use this to hang my pillows!!"

And here is the result of that awesome thought process:

It is fun looking, bright, and it clears up space on my shelf for more material. 

What do you think?

Vintage Thrift Store

The other weekend Nate and I decided to head out to do a little shopping.  We searched online for some fun Vintage Antique stores - and found a few all in one place. Below are some of the pictures I took:

Yes - this is a fish head mounted - why? Who knows...

I was kind of obsessed with this light.  It was so cool.

Okay - again, just thought this was funny. Who doesn't need a gold cowboy boot?

Not the flowery stuff - I loved the metal diamod glass pane behind the first one.  It really wanted to come home with me  - but it didn't :(

Surprise - I liked something that was an owl...

This was an AWESOME bar cart... it also wanted to come home with me, but not for $600.  

Sadly, nothing came home with us that trip - but we had a lot of fun looking around.  

If you live in the Twin Cities and know of some cool vintage stores, would love to hear about them.

New Camera

The other week Nate and I decided it was time to grow up a little bit - and by that I mean, get rid of our old cheapo camera and get a new one.  And while we were at it - we might as well go big!

This is my new best friend: the Nikon D5100

I am still learning all the bells and whistles - but even the auto mode is awesome!

Below are some pictures I took of one of Annie's baby showers:

 Side shot of Annie with our friend Sarah - who is due a day after Annie

Then there was this guy- Jackson, son of our friend Missy. Seriously, could not get enough pictures of his cuteness!!

Trying on one of Annie's gifts to make sure it worked okay :)

Iowa State girls - minus a few who were dearly missed!!

Like I said - I am still learning - but having fun as I go!

Organization Station Fail

Remember this post from less than a month ago? Where I detailed how our pantry door went from blank to busy?

The end product looked like this....

Until a week later when things started falling....and then it looked like this....

Yeah. Those sticky squares were supposed to stick to the cork boards I purchased for $7 a pop.

 But instead, they adhered only to our pantry door. So each evening, upon arriving home from work, I was greeted with a Organization Mess Station. Luckily, Container Store has fabulous customer service and they agreed to return my cork boards (without a receipt) in exchange for store credit. 

I still wanted to keep the organization station going though...so I picked out something else. 

It's a super slim, magnetic board. I think it looks even better than the cork board!

A total fail turned...win!

We painted!

The outside of our house needed painting - BAD!  We were those people on the block that had wood showing through the paint, and paint peeling on all sides of the house.  Below is when we first moved in - more than 4 years ago now!

And here is the new color!

It is a dark gray with white trim.  I like it soooo much better- maybe simply because there is no paint missing from spot on the house!  In my dreams we would also replace the roof with black or charcoal gray shingles, and then I would paint the front door a bright yellow.

Maybe something like this from pinterest:



Oh well - it is still so much better than it was before.

Oh also - while Nate and I are usually all about DIYing - we just had to get it professionally done this time... summer is just too short and we already have our hand full of other projects.

I missed this deal....you shouldn't

As you know, we put Cardboard Safari's Fred in our nursery.

 

We paid full price for our Fred, but now Joss & Main has him for $14 less. 

 There are a bunch of other animals, so if you were admiring our safari animal you can score your own for a deal. 

 Go here to join Joss & Main 

How Pinteresting: Vintage Industrial

I am kind of obsessed with the look of Vintage industrial right now. It is very clean, yet old. Looking through pinterest I found quite a few pictures that had me drooling:

I really want one of those carts as a coffee table - I have been looking for a while now, but can old find fake 'old' ones. 

Also, Nate found this on CL the other day, and we have been calling and calling this person, but there has been no answer or answering machine...what is up with that??

Hopefully I will get it soon!!